The invention relates to eye goggles, in particular to a pair of eye goggles which can be used to protect the eyes in a wide variety of recreational activities, such as swimming, cycling, ball games, etc. where eye protection is usually worn.
In many recreational activities, it is prudent to wear eye protection, for example to protect the eyes from chemicals in pool water when swimming, from insects or road dirt during cycling, or from fast moving balls in ball games such as racquetball and squash. Other recreational activities requiring goggles include snow boarding, skiing, mountaineering, sailing etc. where additional protection from UV rays is required, as well as protection from wind-driven snow, rain, spray, etc. For the many activities mentioned above, separate prior art goggles would be required, each one being adapted for the specialized activity. To the inventor's knowledge, no prior art goggles exist which can be used for all the activities listed above. For example, when considering the first three activities only, the protective goggles used in ball games would be inappropriate for swimming as they would leak, and for cycling would probably be uncomfortable for long usage, and might be prone to permit entry of road dust. Prior art swimming goggles are inappropriate for cycling due to relatively poor peripheral vision and optical distortion. Prior art cycling goggles are not strong enough to prevent injury when impacted by a ball, and also are not waterproof for full immersion in water. Similar limitations exist for most specialized prior art goggles used in activities for which they were not designed.
In addition, a common problem with prior art swimming goggles relates to an interconnecting nosepiece which extends between eyepieces of the goggles. A common type of nosepiece is a relatively thin and flexible strap which is received within complementary openings provided in peripheral rims of the eyepieces. The strap has opposite outer ends provided with "barb-like" stepped projections which cooperate with the openings in the eyepieces to locate the nosepiece with respect to the eyepieces. The stepped projections at end portions of the nosepiece permit incremental adjustment of spacing between the eyepieces so as to accommodate persons having eyes at different widths. The flexibility of such straps is considered by some to be an advantage as it permits independent variations between the orientation of each eyepiece with respect to the nosepiece, so as to accommodate a wide variety of different shapes of faces. However, this flexibility is a disadvantage in that relatively high head-strap tension is required to locate and seal the goggles securely on the face, which tension can become uncomfortable if the goggles are worn for a long period of time. Furthermore, if the goggles are to be used when diving, even greater tension is required, which produces additional discomfort.
To avoid the above problems, some goggles have been produced with eyepieces which are interconnected and integral with the nosepiece, i.e. the eyepieces and nosepiece are fabricated in one piece from the same material. The nosepiece is relatively broad and provides a relatively rigid connection between the eyepieces, thus permitting reduction of head-strap tension while maintaining adequate sealing of the eyepieces with the wearer's face. However, fabricating the eyepieces and nosepiece of one type of material requires a compromise in the material characteristics. Clearly, the eyepieces are best selected for optical qualities, whereas the nosepiece material should be selected for toughness and strength. Usually, modern plastic materials do not exhibit the best of these two properties, and a poor compromise is reached in which the lens has relatively poor optical quality, and the nosepiece has poor toughness. This can result in relatively brittle goggles, which can break easily, or are too stiff to resiliently adapt to a face width. If the material has sufficient flexibility for the nosepiece requirement, the material would likely be a little soft for the eyepieces, which results in the eyepieces becoming easily scratched and with a reduction in optical quality.